est in
Etches, Limited, that brought them in seven or eight thousand a year.
They were a pretty tidy example of what the Five Towns can do when it
tries to be wealthy.

At that moment, when Harold was climbing into the car, a shabby old man
who was walking down the road, followed by a boy carrying a carpet-bag,
stopped suddenly and touched Harold on the shoulder.

'Bless us!' exclaimed the old man. And the boy and the carpet-bag
halted behind him.

'What? Uncle Dan?' said Harold.

'Uncle Dan!' cried Maud, springing up with an enchanting smile. 'Why,
it's ages since--'

'And what d'ye reckon ye'n gotten here?' demanded the old man.

'It's my new car,' Harold explained.

'And ca'st drive it, lad?' asked the old man.

'I should think I could!' said Harold confidently.

'H'm!' commented the old man, and then he shook hands, and thoroughly
scrutinized Maud.

Now, this is the sort of thing that can only be seen and appreciated in
a district like the Five Towns, where families spring into splendour
out of nothing in the course of a couple of generations, and as often
as not sink back again into nothing in the course of two generations
more.

The Etches family is among the best known and the widest spread in the
Five Towns. It originated in three brothers, of whom Daniel was the
youngest. Daniel never married; the other two did. Daniel was not very
fond of money; the other two were, and they founded the glorious firm
of Etches. Harold was the grandson of one brother, and Maud was the
Granddaughter of the other. Consequently, they both stood in the same
relation to Dan, who was their great-uncle--addressed as uncle 'for
short'.

There is a good deal of snobbery in the Five Towns, but it does not
exist between relatives. The relatives in danger of suffering by it
would never stand it. Besides, although Dan's income did not exceed two
hundred a year, he was really richer than his grandnephew, since Dan
lived on half his income, whereas Harold, aided by Maud, lived on all
of his.

Consequently, despite the vast difference in their stations, clothes,
and manners, Daniel and his young relatives met as equals. It would
have been amusing to see anyone--even the Countess of Chell, who
patronized the entire district--attempt to patronize Dan.

In his time he had been the greatest pigeon-fancier in the country.

'So you're paying a visit to Bursley, uncle?' said Maud.

'Aye!' Dan replied. 'I'm back i' owd Bosley. Sar